Layout and Design

The front panel of the SmartDisk FlashTrax XT has a layout that is similar to a DVD player - with the typical Play/Pause, Rewind, Forward, and Power Button. The volume controls are also located on the front, making them accessible even when the screen is closed - an important design feature when using the FlashTrax XT as a music player.



The rear panel is where you connect the power adapter, USB cable, A/V-in cable, A/V-out cable, and headphones. The FlashTrax XT ships with a mini-to-RCA audio/video cable, which is convenient for connecting to or from a video source. When connecting a device that also uses a mini-jack output, you will need to head over to radio shack to pick up a mini-to-mini A/V cable. It would be nice to see SmartDisk include this type of cable in the future.



Long Lasting, Removable Battery
Compared to the paltry 3-hour battery life of the original FlashTrax, the new FlashTrax XT offers triple the battery life of the original - providing up to 15 hours of music playback, 8 hours of video playback, and the ability to transfer up to TWENTY-FOUR 512MB CompactFlash memory cards (22GB Worth) or THIRTY-SIX 1GB CompactFlash memory cards before needing to be recharged.

Photographers can take the FlashTrax XT out to remote locations for a few days without having to worry about recharging it each night.



LED Indicator Lamps
The upper left corner of the unit, under the flip-up screen, features two LED lights to let you know the status of operations. The upper light glows red when connected to AC power or flashes when using the unit during charging. The lower LED is amber in color and flickers whenever the hard drive is being accessed. An internal microphone, used for voice recording, is located on the lower left corner - under the flip-up screen (not pictured).





Navigation Pad and Buttons

Controls to navigate around the FlashTrax XT are located under the flip-up LCD screen. The control layout consists of a 4-way navigation pad, and "enter" and "back" button, speaker, zoom in/out buttons and a "record" button.

Selecting an Icon, Menu item or folder is done using both the navigation pad and [Enter] button. Getting back to a previous screen is as simple as pressing the "back" button.

Enter button:       Back Button: